Good morning! Today is Sunday – or for some of us – Meal Prep Day as well. I used to prep entire meals… but you know sometimes they get boring. The same sloppy joe, taco meat, chicken in marinade…. I thought I would try INGREDIENT prepping instead! What is ingredient prepping? Instead of spending time creating whole meals, you prepare the ingredients instead. Here are some of the ones I do now:

Zucchini noodles (try this recipe, or my new simpler version is to saute a diced red bell pepper, add half a can of diced tomatoes with a tablespoon of pizza/Italian seasoning, then add zoodles) – Just remember to put paper towels at the bottom of the zoodles to absorb excess moisture)

Sweet Potato Toast

Hard-boiled eggs

Peel and cut oranges – store in glass jars

Brown or wild rice

Cooked chicken or ground turkey

Roast vegetables: asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, etc.

Chop celery and store in water for snacks

Slice Cucumber for kids snack

And of course… Sweet Potato toast!

Once all of the ingredients are prepped – you can just add your condiments or sauces and create more meals from these like… chicken and rice bowls, chicken salad, Korean rice bowl, spaghetti and sauce, egg salad sandwich, etc.

Here is the recipe for today:

Instead of bread, the sweet potato replaces all that and acts as bread! Lots of fiber, vitamins and fewer carbohydrates. Here is a list of some amazing toppings we have tried:

Ingredients

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Coat a rimmed cookie sheet with cooking spray or parchment paper.

Wash and peel the sweet potatoes. Cut off the ends. Using a large sharp knife, cut the sweet potato into 1/4"-1/2" slices lengthwise - so you get large slice of "toast". I slice the potato in half usually and then cut the other two sides.

Place the sweet potatoes onto the cookie sheet. Spraying with olive oil cooking spray. Flip and spray the other side. Now, you can add salt and pepper or Everything but the Bagel seasoning if you like. Bake 15-25 minutes. I like mine dark brown and caramelized. The potato should be cooked thoroughly and poke through with a fork quite easily.

Allow to cool on a cooling rack. Eat immediately or store in the fridge for 3-5 days.

**When re-heating, just place it in the toaster oven like a piece of toast. If you have a pop-up toaster, this will work as well but just check to be sure the sweet potato is large enough to pull out easily. Time will depend on your toaster.